Case Study

AS Starman has been acquired by Elisa Oyj

Polaris Invest and Com Holding have sold AS Starman to Elisa Oyj for US&dollar;160 million&period;

Starman is the leading cable television services and broadband provider in Estonia&comma; with approximately 320&comma;000 subscribers&period; Since its establishment in 1992&comma; the company has grown organically and through acquisitions&comma; integrating more than 20 local operators over the years&period; Starman is the market leader in pay TV and number two in broadband internet&comma; with 35&percnt; and 20&percnt; market share in each segment&comma; respectively&period;

Elisa is the leading Finish telecommunications&comma; ICT and online services provider&comma; with 2&period;3 million consumer&comma; corporate and public administration organization customers&period; Cooperation with Vodafone and Telenor enables global competitive services&period; Elisa is listed on Nasdaq Helsinki Large Cap with approximately 200&comma;000 shareholders&period; In 2016&comma; Elisa’s revenues amounted to approximately US&dollar;1&period;8 billion and had 4&comma;300 employees&period; The company already provides mobile services in Estonia and the merger of Elisa Estonia and Starman will create an integrated group with revenues of US&dollar;143 million and US&dollar;52 million EBITDA&comma; mostly from mobile services&period;

Polaris Invest and Com Holding are the founding shareholders of Starman&period; This is the second closing in a series of deals whereby Polaris Invest exercised its pre-emption right to acquire East Capital Explorer AB's 63&percnt; stake in Starman Group &lpar;first closing&rpar;&period; The transaction was financed by Finland-based telecom services provider Elisa&comma; who now acquires Starman's Estonian operations after having obtained the necessary regulatory approvals&period; In parallel&comma; Polaris Invest and Com Holding have acquired Cgates&comma; Starman's Lithuanian operations&period;

Oaklins' team in Estonia advised the sellers in this transaction&period;